Browse Hierarchy ESH6084: Reading the Contemporary Middle East

This module will introduce students to Arabic literature in translation, as well as anglophone Middle Eastern writing from 2001 to the present day. In a reflection of the impact of this moment on the exposure of the West to Arab literatures, the module takes the 9/11 attacks as a turning point in the status and relationship of Euro-American audiences to Arab literatures. Through an examination of texts from around the region, this module will ask what Middle Eastern writing in English/ translation allow us to understand about the contemporary Middle East, and what the circulation of these texts obscures or masks.